Paying tribute to Charlie Ellerbrock: friend, colleague, journalist

Let me give this a try.

“If you were to ask the many readers of The Times, NewsTribune and Bureau County Republican what exemplified reporter Charlie Ellerbrock over his decades in journalism, they would tell you he cared about the people he was writing about and that showed in his work.”

That may be how Charlie would start a column like this.

He was an excellent features writer, usually beginning with a broad opening sentence that took his overall point and connected it in a way readers could digest.

Sometimes it was finding a saying, or a cultural reference that was fitting. Other times it was pulling from common human experience.

Journalism professors may look at it and frown at the use of a cliche, or say he was overreaching, but Charlie never had that issue.

He was able to strike a chord with his stories and those opening lines, because he took the time to get to know his sources.

I am saddened I will no longer get to work with him, after he died unexpectedly last week.

Since he made the transition from being a full-time sports reporter to covering mostly news a couple summers ago, we met at 11 a.m. every Monday morning at the Ottawa office and would discuss the week ahead, and he would tell me about the interviews he was setting up. He’d meet with people at Jeremiah Joe Coffee, go out to see them or have lengthy phone conversations. He knew to schedule about an hour for each source, because for him, it was more than just getting a list of questions answered. He connected with them, and that’s why he was able to tell their stories in an engaging and accurate way. Even in our planning meetings, he would ask me how my dad was doing, or we’d talk about the Cubs or Bears, or any variety of topics.

Charlie’s stories were “hang it on the refrigerator” material for scores of readers over the decades. He featured the accomplishments of athletes, teams, students, artists and entrepreneurs, among other community members. There’s a good chance if you were a standout in sports in the Illinois Valley either in Bureau County during his time at the BCR, or at Marquette Academy from then to now, Charlie Ellerbrock shared your story.

While parents and grandparents are enthusiastic for their children and grandchildren, which is why those stories were hung in the kitchen like the Mona Lisa, Charlie shared their pride. He liked to see local people do good things and was enthusiastic to pen their stories.

His spirit translated to news. Just last month, he couldn’t wait to interview Johnny Derango, a native of Peru (like Charlie) and talk about his newest film “Flight Risk” directed by Mel Gibson and starring Mark Wahlberg. Charlie also was an old movies buff. He volunteered to write about veterans often, taking pride in his relative Hank Ellerbrock, a Pearl Harbor survivor. He also was eager to catch up with former Times reporter Annette Barr about her latest photography project featuring the people in her neighborhood.

The way Charlie would tell me it went: There was about 20 to 30 minutes of talking about the story, and another 30 minutes or more talking about other life stuff. He cared about people and asked how they were doing. He also had several interests from movies to art, to sports and can engage in a conversation about seemingly anything.

Carrying himself that way for roughly 50 years, it’s easy to see how these sources connected with him beyond the journalism work he was doing. When parents would see him writing about their children, they remembered him writing when they were younger, and he recalled them too. He made many friendships this way.

His body of work led to him being inducted in the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2024 as a sportswriter.

I remember telling Charlie recently he was going to start covering the Spring Valley City Council meetings, and he looked at the list of council members, and rattled off how he knew them from playing softball, covering their kids at Hall High School, or interacting with them years ago.

I respected how Charlie handled the transition from covering primarily sports to news. It would not have been his choice, but he understood that was what was needed at the time and he was loyal, telling me he would do anything I needed.

They are different worlds, sectioned away from each other in the newspaper and come with their own terminologies, but at the end of the day, journalism is journalism.

At the root of it all, we tell people’s stories. And Charlie had a special knack for doing it. It didn’t matter what the topic, he could connect with his source and share. Because he cared about them.

And, yes, it showed in his work.

• Derek Barichello is the regional news editor for The Times, NewsTribune and Bureau County Republican for Shaw Local News Network.